Feeling Left Out
by Alithnul
Summary: No one in Beacon was more excited for dismissal time than Ruby Rose. However once Ruby Sprinted back to her dorm, she was surprised to see that none of her teammates had returned.


Beacon Academy was known for many things. Responsible students, exceptional academic achievement, skilled fighters, brilliant professors, well kept grounds, and like most of the other combat schools in Remnant, it was filled with students who could not wait until they heard the dismissal bell's toll, freeing them from their tedious lectures. Out of all of the student body at Beacon, arguably the most anxious to sprint back to their dorm once class was dismissed was none other than Ruby Rose. The red headed reaper never quite garnered the skill of sitting still, and paying full attention in class, unless it was a weapons demonstration. Ruby stared down the clock near the front of the room in Professor Port's lecture hall, waiting to be freed from his tall tale of slaying 20 boarbatusks using only his fierce tenacity and a few twigs. As the professor's story drew to an end the bell rang out creating a cacophony due to the 80 or so students packing up their belongings and leaving the room. As all of the students took their time delicately packing away their belongings Ruby was at the ready, having not brought anything out throughout the entirety of class to begin with. With a little assistance from her semblance the reaper bolted out of the room, setting her sights for her team's dorm room.

Ruby had reached her dorm in a mere four and a half minutes, having to weave in between students, constantly apologizing as she went, knowing there was no way to avoid the occasional bump here or there. Now that she had arrived at her destination a thought had become ever present to her. She had no idea as to what she wanted to do, the possibilities were near endless considering today was Friday, the start of the weekend. Realizing her predicament she glanced about the room looking for anything of intrigue, she spotted some books on Blake's bookshelf, her supply of metal polish, and rag for cleaning her sweetheart, and of course showing zwei some affection, however the pup had seemed to have passed out in his owner's absence. Weighing her options on how to bide time until her sluggish teammates arrived, Ruby decided to sit down and get to work on cleaning Crescent Rose, after all she could never show her sweetheart enough attention. As Ruby began polishing she became lost in her work, needing to cleanse every square inch of her prized possession.

Not before long, Ruby had realized her task of tending to Crescent Rose had eaten up significantly more time then she thought she would have had. The redhead flicked her eyes over to the alarm clock, realizing that she had just spent the last 35 minutes polishing her weapon until it shone like a mirror. Ruby began to feel the sensation of panic wash over her, concern flooding her mind as to what could have happened to her teammates. She began to internally question why they weren't here right now. _Had one of them been held up after class? No that doesn't make sense, they didn't do anything that would warrant that. Did they make plans to go somewhere? No they would have told me if they did…_ Ruby began to ponder all of these scenarios and more, evaluating the logical value behind each idea, coming up short each time. After really focusing on the possibilities, Ruby had remembered something. Today was the first Friday of second semester, which meant that all of the new clubs and teams began accepting new members. As she remembered this, it all came back to her.

About a month ago the auditorium was emptied out to make room for signups for the myriad of school sponsored clubs, teams, and activities. During this time students were free to sign up for any club of their choosing, each of them to begin running on friday afternoons after classes had been dismissed for the day. Ruby really had meant to eventually go down and sign up for something that gathered her interest, but each time she approached the auditorium alone she found herself walking past, dissuaded by the thoughts of people trying to convince her to join their clubs via means of peer pressure. Ruby felt extremely anxious in social situations with people she didn't know all too well, so an auditorium full of people that were going to be attempting to sell her on their club was not the most appealing of ideas to her. Evidently her teammates felt differently.

Now that Ruby had recalled the date and its significance, she remembered that all of her teammates had preexisting plans. Weiss had surprised everyone by signing up for the school's trading card game/board game club, although it made sense considering how much she seemed to enjoy playing Remnant: The Game in the library. Blake had elected to join the school's video game club, evidently trying to break out of her comfort zone just a bit. And finally she thought about what Yang had signed up for. _Knitting that's right. So what am I to do now?_ Thinking about it Ruby really wished that she had gotten over her irrational fears and had gone to sign up for a club, because now she had realized that every Friday for this semester she was going to be alone.

Team RWBY's resident redhead started to feel a frown pulling at her lips, that was until she realized that there may be hope yet. Jaune also seemed the socially awkward type, and probably skipped out on signing up as well. With newfound glee she put a skip in her step and went across the hall to knock on team JNPR's door. After giving her signature knock Ruby eagerly waited on the other side of the door. After a minute or so of waiting and listening for any sign of life on the other end of the door she realized that no one was home. Again Ruby let out a sigh, and was again left with the question of what to do. After debating on what to do about the situation Ruby decided to be ever the optimist that she was and decided to head off in search of the clubs locations hoping that they might make an exception for her.

After spending ten minutes tracking down the locations of each of the clubs, the first place that Ruby had decided that she wanted to visit was the TCG/board game club that Weiss was attending. She spent the next five minutes navigating her way to the room where the club was being held, only to find that the door had been locked with a sign posted saying that the club was to be in session for the next two hours. Sighing Ruby was about to turn away until she saw a window that had a view of the room, the only problem was that the window was above the door, and she simply wasn't tall enough to reach it.

Ruby decided to perform a precarious act of balance, opting to place her right foot on the handle of the door, and brace herself using the door frame. It took the reaper several tries, but she did eventually get the hang of it. She got to a point where she could pull herself up enough to view through the window. Through the tiny slit of glass that served as a window, Ruby was able to see her partner deeply engaged in a round of Remnant: The Game, what had surprised Ruby was that Weiss wasn't the only familiar face she saw on the other side of the door. Playing Remnant: The Game with Weiss was none other than team JNPR's resident klutz, Jaune. Ruby looked on, playing the game vicariously through her friends. She watched as the game progressed, and then she saw Weiss get that look. The look of confidence that meant she was certain that she was about to succeed in whatever her goal may be, however this look lasted about four seconds before it was shattered by Jaune activating a trap card that. Upon devastating the ice queen's shot at victory, Jaune was rewarded with a solid punch to the arm, and surely a lecture about the injustice of his actions.

Seeing the scene unfold before her, the reaper was unable to keep from laughing at her partner's antics. Unfortunately for Ruby however she forgot that the only thing keeping her standing was a very unstable door handle, and upon chuckling Ruby could not maintain her balance, tumbling backwards. As she fell laughs turned into yelps as gravity had its way with her. After a brief four foot fall the brunette found herself with a sizable lump, and stinging pain on the back of her head. Ruby had secretly hoped that due to her all too sudden acquaintance with the floor, someone might have noticed her, and therefore would have something to do this friday evening. This unfortunately was not the case.

Scraping herself off the floor, Ruby had debated whether to take her tumble as a sign that she should just retire the dorm for the night, or if she should continue to pursue her teammates. Heaving a heavy sigh, the silver eyed girl decided to continue with her original plan of seeing if she could get into any of the activities her teammates were participating in. Now that Weiss was officially crossed off as an option she decided to weigh her options yet again. She could either go looking for her sister who to everyone's surprise signed up for knitting club, or if she wanted to go for the equally surprising choice that the resident recluse of team RWBY had made, Beacons Video Game Club. After brief contemplation Ruby decided to go in search of Blake. Not that she had anything against her sister, but knitting hardly seemed up Ruby's alley.

After spending a few minutes backtracking to the postings board for clubs, she scanned all of the papers posted on the massive cork board, until she found the room number for the gaming club and began making her way there. After a five minute journey, only getting turned around twice, the redhead eventually found her way to her desired destination, only to be greeted with yet another locked door. At least this room had glass panes on either side of the door, this way she didn't have to perform a balancing act to peer inside. Ruby was surprised with what she saw when she looked past the glass. She saw her teammate Blake engrossed in something other than books. She saw the faunus' left hand hammering keys, while her right flicked the mouse about methodically.

Ruby just sat back and watched with admiration. The brunette had a lot of experience playing games, but they had always been played on a console, watching her teammate make such deliberate actions made Ruby wonder what exactly was going on, on the other side of the monitor. Before she had known it, seven minutes had passed of the brunette just staring at her teammate. Upon realizing this Ruby had to reorganize her thoughts, having forgot why she came in the first place. Recalling that it was because she was bored looking for something to do, she decided to take a chance and knocked on the door hoping to hear the click of it unlocking. The click never came. Ruby feeling defeated decided that she wanted to gather her courage one more time and knock just a bit louder. Again after waiting there was no response, which is when something occurred to her. It was gaming club, and everyone was wearing a headset or earbuds, of course no one would be able to hear her pleas for entry. Feeling rather defeated still being in the same situation she was a an hour ago, albeit with newfound head pain, Ruby decided to call it quits and retire to the dorm.

Feeling disappointed by her lack of sources of entertainment the reaper dragged her feet across the hallways of Beacon, feeling dejected due to her failure to accomplish her task. After her ten minute shuffle back to their team's dorm the Ruby released an exhale as she reached for the door handle, and decided that she might as well try to make the best of the situation. As Ruby entered the door she was pleasantly surprised to find her pup wide awake. Having now found a source of entertainment, Ruby let the negative thoughts of failure fade from her mind as she chased Zwei around the dorm room. Ruby had spent the past five minutes chasing her furry companion around the dorm, and was having a great time. Unfortunately her fun had come to an end when she had accidently bumped into the nightstand between the beds, causing some makeup supplies to topple to the ground, including a vial of nail polish whose cap had been left unscrewed. This of course caused a red pool of polish to begin to absorb into the carpet.

"Oh no, not good, not good!" The reaper exclaimed.

In a panic to rectify the situation Ruby grabbed a few of her pages of doodles scattered about the room to try and clean up the mess that she had just inadvertently created. Fortunately her sketches soaked up the polish as much as they did the attention of their creator. After a few minutes of panic had passed, Ruby looked at her drawings, now stained with red, and stared for a moment, that is when her idea struck her, her solution to Friday's from this point out. After she had hatched her idea in her mind, and had gathered the required supplies the silver eyed warrior got to work setting her plan in motion.

About an two hours had passed since Ruby had gone off to set her plans into motion, and due to this the various extracurricular activities around Beacon had begun dismissing. It wasn't long before the members of team RWBY had begun assembling together outside of their dorm room, each asking how their first day of their respective clubs had gone. As they were talking Yang proudly produced a pillow she had been keeping out of sight.

"That's… actually not too bad, nice job!" Her partner congratulated her.

"Thanks! It was actually a lot easier than I had thought it would be! Also knitting is not nearly as boring as you would think it is."

"Whatever keeps you busy I suppose." The heiress added.

"Hey, I don't judge your choice of activity, so I would appreciate it if you didn-" The blonde brawler cut off her own train of thought as she realized something. "Hey do any of you know if Ruby signed up for a club, or anything?" Her question was only answered by shrugged shoulders. Deciding to confirm her suspicion the blonde brawler took out her scroll and entered their team's dorm. To say she was surprised when she walked into the door would be an understatement.

The sight the trio waiting outside of the dorm was akin to that of a birthday party on a five dollar budget. Front and center draped between the bunk beds was a sign that read "Team Ruby Club!" written across 5 pages stapled together, in red nail polish. Zwei donned a paper hat, as did a certain red headed reaper. Ruby had laid out a variety of her possessions, and had them dotted across the room, each with a decorative hat of sorts, including Crescent Rose. The trio that had at this point now entered the dorm was speechless as to what laid before their eyes. The first to break this trance of confusion was Yang.

"Um… Ruby… what''s uh. What's going on here?" The blonde asked cautiously.

"Oh, can't you tell?" Ruby looked to her sister, only seeing confusion written on her face. "Well… While all of you were out enjoying your various clubs and what not I decided to make a club dedicated to well… Me! This way I wouldn't have to be bored waiting for you all to come back."

"Let me get this straight… You were bored, so you made a club dedicated yourself?" The heiress questioned.

"Uh, well when you put it like that it sounds like a bad thing… Is that a bad thing?" The reaper asked, now concerned.

The blonde brawler chuckled lightly in response. "No Ruby, not at all, but can I ask you a question?" The younger sibling responded with an unsure nod of the head. "Why?" She said while motioning to the decorations strewn about the room.

Ruby just looked down at her feet, and began pressing her index fingers against one another, the way she did whenever she was nervous. "Well… you see…" The young huntress gulped, but was reassured to continue with an encouraging nod from her older sister. With a sigh she continued her explanation in that breakneck nervous pace that only she was capable of.

"Well you see, I totally forgot that the clubs were starting up this week, and I sat in the dorm bored, so I started polishing Crescent Rose, for like half an hour until she was really, REALLY shiny. Then I remembered that you all had clubs, so I went looking for all of you, but all of your doors were locked, I even tried to find each of you, that's when I fell, and bumped my head really, REALLY, hard. After that I went back to the dorm and then played with zwei for a bit, and as we were playing I accidently knocked some nail polish on the carpet, that's when I got the idea to make signs, for my own club, the Team Ruby Club!" Ruby stated stopped only by the need to catch her breath.

As Ruby looked around the room seeking any sign of response, she noticed that Blake and Weiss had looks of utter confusion written on their faces, while her sister responded by enveloping her in one of her signature bear hugs. "Ruby, have I ever told you how adorable you are?"

Ruby, now being crushed in the grip of her elder sister struggled to break free, and was gasping for air all the while. "I won't be for long if you suffocate me!" the reaper responded in a strained voice, trying to escape her sister's hug. This display caused a faint smile to creep on the monochrome portion of team RWBY. After Yang released her sister, she stood up and without saying a word took down Ruby's sign, and grabbed the remnants of the nail polish. Ruby was the first to inquire as to what was going on.

"Yang… What uh… What are you doing?" The redhead responded with a raised eyebrow. The only response that she got was the blonde brawler raising her index finger to her lips.

Yang shook the contents of the nail polish, and seemed to be scrawling something on the sign that Ruby had created. Once she was finished with that, she fished out a spare piece of paper from the stack Ruby had been using, and began folding it. After a short while, she had produced a hat, similar to the ones that lied on top of Ruby's possessions. Now with a completed hat she placed it atop her head, and rehung the sign in its original position. As Yang stepped back, the other members of the team looked at the sign in curiosity, and noticed what alteration the brawler had made. Now instead of reading "Team Ruby Club!" Yang had added another 'u', and adjusted the other letters in order to get the sign to read "Team RWBY Club!" Once Yang was certain that everyone had gotten a chance to see what she did, she decided to break the silence.

"Sorry you had spend the day alone, but just remember that we're a team, I'm sure if you wanted to you could join in on my knitting club" After mentioning this a faint smile began to appear on the reaper's face. Seeing the effect Yang's words were having the heiress decided to chip in to the conversation as well.

"You know you could also help me to defeat Jaune in Remnant: The Game on occasion if you wanted to as well." Ruby nodded her head in agreement, and looked up towards the silent member of the room.

"I'm sure there is always a chair open in game club as well if you would like." The faunus replied.

After hearing all of these offers presented to Ruby, her heart began to flutter with excitement and gratitude. She squealed in joy knowing that she wouldn't be forced to spend hours alone every week. "Thank you, you all are the best!" After she exclaimed her gratitude to her teammates, she brought them all into a large group hug. To which the rest of the team chuckled and joined in. After their group hug, Ruby grabbed a few sheets of paper from the stack she had been using, and fashioned hats for the remainder of her team, and they spent the rest of the evening discussing what they had done in their clubs that day, and how Ruby would soon be joining in on the activities.

After the day's antics had concluded, the sun had set, and darkness began to creep into the halls of Beacon Academy. As darkness filled their dorm, the members of Team RWBY all settled in for the night, and began nodding off to sleep, with a certain redheaded reaper delving into pleasantly exciting dreams about upcoming extracurricular adventures.


End file.
